Advocacy and Human Rights in ASEAN for Human Rights and Democracy in Myanmar

The Advocacy and Human Rights in ASEAN for Human Rights and Democracy in Myanmar Workshop was held in Bangkok from 27 March – 31 March, 2023 in partnership with Mahidol University Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies (IHRP), FORUM-ASIA, WITNESS and Migrant Forum in Asia.

The Workshop continues DTP’s long relationship with Myanmar’s human rights and democracy movement. The Workshop provided a safe space for reflection, building knowledge and skills, sharing information, strategies and resources, and for establishing networks for continued solidarity amongst the participants. There was a focus on the current human rights crisis in Myanmar, and the opportunity of a more effective ASEAN response to the crisis presented by Indonesia’s chairmanship of ASEAN.

The Workshop brought together over 20 Myanmar diaspora and civil society advocates in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and the Philippines. Sessions were led by Yuyun Wahyuningrum, Chair of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), Mike Hayes (IHRP), Debbie Stothard (AltASEAN), Arul Prakkash (WITNESS), William Gois (MFA), Dr Catherine Renshaw and Patrick Earle (DTP). There were presentations from the EU’s Special Envoy on Myanmar and Ambassador to ASEAN, Igor Driesmans, Dr. Amara Pongsapich, Thailand’s AICHR representative, James Rodehaven, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and Mr Marco Rudin, Political and Economic Attache at the Embassy of Switzerland in Thailand. The opening keynote was delivered by H.E. Kasit Piromya, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand and Board Member of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights.

DTP thanks its partners in the program, its trainers who donated their time, the participants who shared their knowledge, and the funders that made the program possible. DTP would also like to thank NED and UUSC and DTP’s individual supporters whose funding support made this program possible.